Numbers Game
by Mr Khan
Summary: After facing an enemy with a probability-based devil fruit, Zoro learns that anything is possible, whatever the odds. Now complete!
1. Act One

Numbers Game

Author's Note: Naturally I make no claim of ownership on One Piece and am using this property purely in a fair-use capacity. However, there is another acknowledgement that needs to be made: the plot idea for this story is not my own, indeed the idea for the story, the concept of placing it in "Acts" rather than chapters, and much of the sequence of events are based off something out of another series. Guess it (specifically) and you win a cookie!

PS: I normally don't beg for reviews, but a one-shot of mine that I tagged improperly largely went ignored. Please read "A Pirate Lives Free". It's short!

Act One:

The cannonball arched through the air, zeroing in on the mast of the _Thousand Sunny_. Roronoa Zoro leapt into the air, slashing Sandai Kitetsu right through the missile. Or at least, he thought he did. **Boom.**

"Zoro!" came Chopper's panicked shout, though Zoro could not hear it over the ringing in his own ears as he fell back to the _Sunny_'s deck. Nothing was hurt, except his pride. How had he botched that slash? Cutting cannonballs was almost routine for him by now.

"A little off your game, eh, marimo? Guess I'll have to pick up the slack." Sanji leapt into the air to intercept the next cannonball that flew towards them before Zoro could fire off a biting retort. Sanji zoomed towards the cannonball and readied a haki-powered kick. **Boom.**

"Sanji too?" Nami yelled incredulously.

"What was that about picking up the slack?" Zoro mocked.

Now it was Sanji who did not have time to reply before Usopp stepped forward as five cannonballs flew towards them. "Hissatsu, Pop Greens!" He fired off five shots in rapid succession, each of which formed itself into a venus-fly-trap, each of which prepared to eat the cannonballs.

Zoro strained his senses this time. Something was going wrong here: no way could he and Sanji both screw up something so simple. As the Pop Greens neared their targets, a subtle noise was audible: snap snap snap snap snap. The sound of someone rapidly snapping their fingers, and then the Pop Greens changed their trajectory in mid-flight, just missing the cannonballs, which flew on, over the three crewmates' heads and exploding against the _Sunny_'s invincible Adam Wood decks.

"Oi oi!" Franky roared. "Aren't any of you interested in protecting my Sunny?"

"We're trying, damnit!" Usopp shouted back. He too seemed at a loss as to how his sniping skills had failed him. Surely the sharp-eyed sniper had seen what Zoro had seen, the impossible trajectory-change. The swordsman instead glanced at their erstwhile enemies, a pirate crew with a pair of dice under the skull and crossbones of their jolly roger. The apparent captain was a man in a tacky leather longcoat with messy, long blonde hair and a pompadour. A pair of dice dangled from his necklace. He seemed all too pleased with himself. He had started the fight after chasing the _Sunny_ for about twenty minutes, introducing himself as Jimmy Troy and declaring himself as affiliated with Big Mom.

"Whatever, just take the fight to them!" Nami urged.

"Yosh!" Luffy replied, taking the gap between the ships in one leap. The other ship's thuggish-looking crew rallied to meet the rubber man, and Luffy prepared his standard response for a large crowd. "Gum Gum Gatli-wha!?" Zoro saw it this time, distinctly. Troy snapped his fingers, and then the first punch of Luffy's barrage went wild, causing Luffy's extended arm to wrap around his torso, ending with the rubber man punching himself in the side of his head.

"Bring her around!" Sanji barked at Franky. "We gotta help him!"

"Go for Troy!" Zoro added as he, Chopper, and Sanji jumped over to the other ship. Franky was following, while Usopp, Nami, and Robin held back to provide ranged support. "He's doing something weird!"

"Treinta Fluer!" Robin called, following Zoro's advice immediately as thirty arms sprouted all over Troy's body, grasping him tightly. Troy simply grinned, and snapped his fingers just as Robin barked "Clutch!" She twisted his body, not doubled-over-backwards as she usually did, but to the side, and instead of the usual sickening _crack_, there was a subtler popping sound.

"That felt really good, Neechan!" Troy said mockingly. "My back needed a good cracking. You really know how to make a man happy."

"Don't say anything like that to my Robin-chwan!" Sanji roared, running towards a burly enemy pirate that stood between him and Troy. He raised his leg for a powerful kick, but Troy snapped his fingers again and Sanji's grounded foot slipped, seeing him fall right on his butt.

The sight diverted Zoro's attention for a mere moment, wherein a pirate wielding a large club approached, read for a downward strike. Zoro raised two arms to block the attack, then he heard that snap again and he suddenly sneezed, interrupting the blocking motion and guaranteeing that the club-blow landed square on the swordsman's skull.

Now this one hurt a bit more, and Zoro saw stars for a second, but now he had it figured out. As weird as they had been, the other mistakes were at least possible, but Zoro had his reflexes down to the point that he would never sneeze in the midst of wielding his swords, not unless he was exposed to some sort of potent allergen.

"He's snapping his fingers!" Zoro shouted to the others, all of whom were engaged fiercely with the enemy. "That's messing us up!"

"And here I thought you'd never figure it out!" Troy mocked. "Even the best fighter in the world screws up once in a while. The odds are damn low, but not when you're playing with loaded dice." He grinned broadly.

The Straw Hats fought, but it was hard going against a crew that should have been easy pickings for them, as they made many errors, but soon enough Nami's clever mind turned the tide.

"Weather Sorcery: Pea Soup!" The clima-tact spewed forth a mass of impenetrable fog that rolled low and thick amongst the combatants. None of them could see more than a few feet in front of them, and Zoro struck back against the club-wielding goon, dispatching him effortlessly. Without being able to see the fights, Troy couldn't impact the outcomes. The other Straw Hats had it just as easy, and when the fog cleared, Troy was the last man standing.

He tried, he really did, and Zoro had to respect him for that. With six of the Straw Hats advancing on him, his fingers worked faster than anything Zoro had ever witnessed: punches, slashes and kicks went wide, Franky singed his own hair with Fresh Fire, but the Straw Hats' assault pushed him back, step by step towards his own mast. When Troy stood just in front of the mast, Zoro swung fiercely, aiming for the tendons in his forearm to stop that damn snapping, but he was a step too slow. _Snap_. Zoro's slash went wide and clipped the mast, but Troy jumped backwards to put space between them, readying his fingers as Zoro prepared another slash. _Crack_. Troy's skull bashed into the mast, and he went down.

"Boo," Luffy pouted, looking at the unconscious Troy. "That was boring."

"Did you get everyone?" Nami asked from the other ship.

"I think so," Brook said, as he observed a group of unconscious pirates. "They spared no effort in trying to defeat us."

"Is everyone all right?" Chopper asked. "Zoro, I saw you get hit on the head."

"Eh, I'm fine," Zoro said, rubbing his head nonchalantly. It did feel a little tender, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Chopper then examined Troy. "He might have a concussion," the reindeer concluded. "We shouldn't leave him here."

The Straw Hats proceeded to despoil the crew of the _Lady Luck_, an effort largely led by Nami as she plundered their hold (with Sanji in tow to do the heavy lifting, of course). Usopp and Luffy were fascinated by the gambling paraphernalia, dragging off a roulette table, several sets of die, and a blackjack table for their amusement. The others locked up the rest of the crew below decks, to awaken from their defeat while Chopper kept Troy for observation.

"Sanji, make us a victory feast!"

Luffy demanded a lunch-party, and so the Straw Hats launched into yet another ad hoc celebration. Sanji served fish rather than red meat, to Luffy's dismay, but Luffy quickly got over it as he busied himself with trying to snap his fingers like Troy (a skill he had never acquired) while Usopp watched in amusement. The aquarium room was filled with the normal sights and sounds of a Straw Hat feast: Brook's guitar music, Chopper and Franky making a spectacle of themselves as they danced on the table, Sanji fawning over Nami as he gave her the choicest servings of food and Zoro drinking to his heart's content in the corner. "By the way," Sanji asked Nami after handing her a fruity-looking drink. "Where is Robin-chwan? I made one for her, too."

"She found a book on Troy's ship," Nami said. "She's reading in the library."

"Then I shall deliver!" Sanji declared. He danced out of the aquarium with a tray of food, moving nimbly between Luffy and Usopp, the latter of whom was demonstrating the elusive finger-snapping skill. Zoro took a deep draught of ale.

When he set his mug back down, Robin was there, seated next to Nami as Sanji served her a drink. Zoro blinked, but she didn't go away, though Sanji had retreated to the galley.

"Is something wrong, Kenshi-san?" Robin said with a slight ring to her voice. She had noticed him staring.

"Weren't you reading some book you found on the other ship?"

Robin arched an eyebrow. "How did you know I found a book on the other ship? But no," she added, "I decided to save it for later."

"Nami was talking about it."

"Huh?" Nami queried, "I didn't know about any book."

"Sanji!" Luffy called, holding up a plate. "More meat!"

"You just wait!" Sanji yelled back.

Meat? It had been fish, hadn't it? Zoro reached up and rubbed his head again, feeling the minor swelling under his hair. He set down his mug. "I'm gonna go train." He said shortly.

Training was Zoro's salve for whenever the world got a little too weird; the gym in the crow's nest was his sanctuary from insanity. Today's cure for the crazies was a long set of leg curls.

294… Maybe those damn women had just been playing a prank on him, though what was the motive? Had they been trying to mislead Sanji instead?

295… And when had the red meat been introduced to the equation? Surely he would have remembered Luffy's jubilation at the preparation of meat.

296… This was all getting him nowhere. Weird stuff happens all the time on this ship, and a few small inconsistencies were nothing to lose his mind over.

297… Then again, Robin had to move awfully fast to… "Oi! Tanooki-san! Is our Captain okay?"

_Clang._ Zoro dropped his legs suddenly, letting the weights fall noisily back into place. He went over to the window to investigate the strange voice he had heard down below. Down on the _Sunny_'s grassy deck, the entire crew of the _Lady Luck_, short of Troy himself, was assembled.

Zoro scrambled into action immediately, dropping through the gym's trapdoor and swiftly descending the mainmast, drawing one sword on the way down. "We've been boarded!" Zoro called loudly. "Enemies are on the ship!" He drew his other swords, advancing on the gang of pirates.

"Whoa whoa whoa!" one of the enemy pirates swore in alarm, "what the hell are you doing?"

"That's what I should be asking you," Zoro grunted dangerously around a mouthful of Wado Ichimonji.

"Help!" another pirate yelled. "Your swordsman's gone crazy!" The other Straw Hats assembled rallied onto the deck as Zoro continued to stalk towards the enemy pirates, now assembled in a frightened huddle.

"Oi, what the hell are you doing, Zoro?" Luffy shouted as he bounded towards the swordsman.

"These guys broke free! They're attacking the ship!"

"Some attack," Nami said sarcastically, looking at the enemy pirates who were, to a man, sweating in abject terror of the swordsman.

"Did that knock on the head scramble your moss-brains?" Sanji asked.

"What do you mean?" Zoro asked.

"Troy's crew surrendered after he got knocked out," Brook said. "They wanted to make sure their captain was okay after Chopper said he might have a concussion. It really warmed my heart, even though I don't have a heart, yohohoho!"

"They've been on the ship waiting for Troy to wake up," Chopper added. He turned to address Troy's crew. "He seems to be okay, but he's still asleep. I'll have to wait until he wakes up to make a better diagnosis."

"We locked them up!" Zoro insisted. "We beat them all up and locked them up!"

"Marimo-san is scary…" one of the pirates whispered to Usopp. Usopp nodded emphatically.

"Uhh… Zoro… have you been having other memory lapses?" Chopper asked tentatively.

Memory lapses? Was that it? But he didn't get hit on the head that hard, did he? He could explain away the other little things, but he couldn't explain this one.

"Kinda…" he conceded.

"Come on to the infirmary," Chopper said. "I'll take a look at your head."

They went to the infirmary, where Zoro could see Troy, his messy blonde hair concealed by bandages as he slept. He shifted around a little in his sleep.

"He seems to be sleeping lightly," Chopper said, noticing Zoro's observation. "There's a possibility that might be a bad sign, but it's more likely a good thing. Anyway, can you explain your other memory lapses?"

So Zoro told Chopper about the inconsistencies he had noticed since the fight against Troy: Robin's sudden appearance at a meal she had been skipping, the sudden change in menu, the apparent re-writing of the entire aftermath of their battle with Troy's crew. As Zoro spoke, Chopper carefully ran his cloven fore-hooves through Zoro's mossy hair, running against the small swelling.

Chopper clambered off of Zoro's shoulders and sat in his chair, deep in thought for a moment. "Ah-hah!" he said finally, clapping his hooves together in triumph.

"What?" Zoro asked. "Does it have to do with my head wound?"

"Head wound?" Chopper asked. "You have a head wound? Did you get hit in the head during the fight?"

"Of course I did!" Zoro spat. "That's why I'm here!"

"Zoro, you came in because you said the cut in your leg was bothering you."

"When did I get cut in the leg?"

"During the fight."

Zoro lifted up the hem of his green coat. His leg was all bandaged up.

"What the hell is going on?"

**End Act One.**

Author's note: this will be a shorter one, 4 acts, maybe only around 10,000 words all told? I really swore to give up writing fan-fics, but the inspiration for this one came to me. From where? You can tell me that if you can figure out what I'm ripping off to make this story. Again, cookies are to be had. Cheers!


	2. Act Two

Act Two

Zoro ran a hand through his hair frantically, feeling the contours of his scalp, but there was no swelling.

"I swear I got hit in the head," he told Chopper. "Back during the fight. That guy," he jabbed a finger at the sleeping Troy "snapped his fingers, I missed a block, and got hit in the head."

"No, I saw you," Chopper said. "You sneezed and one of your swords went wild, then you slashed your own leg. You came in a minute ago complaining that your cut was burning."

Zoro tentatively reached down towards the bandaged portion of his left leg and touched it. He drew breath in a sharp hiss. It really did hurt, that wasn't a delusion. But there was no way he could have forgotten something like this, right?

Chopper placed a paw on Zoro's forehead. "Hey!" Zoro protested.

"You're not feverish," Chopper said, concerned. "Have you been having other memory lapses like this?"

"We were just talking about this!" Zoro exclaimed. Once again, though in a far more irritated tone of voice, he explained the inconsistencies so far: Robin's sudden appearance at lunch, the change in lunch menu, and the decision to let the other pirate crew roam free on the _Thousand Sunny_.

"Well, I can't see anything wrong with you medically," Chopper said, though he did not look pleased by that announcement. "Maybe you're…" he cut himself off.

"You think I'm going crazy, huh?" Zoro asked.

"No," Chopper said, shaking his head emphatically. He actually did think so, but he did not want to rush to accuse his crewmate of such a thing.

Zoro's eye narrowed, but he didn't have it in him to get mad at the little doctor. "I'll keep an eye out for anything other weird stuff going on, and I'll tell you, okay?"

"Okay," Chopper affirmed.

~0~

_So I'm going crazy. Maybe._ Zoro wasn't sure. A few of the inconsistencies, the early ones, could have just been a result of not paying attention, but Zoro prided himself on his attention to the details: it was essential to being a good swordsman. Even if he were the kind of person to neglect the details, that didn't explain the latter inconsistencies, especially the change in his injuries. He remembered getting hit in the head just two hours before, remembered the pain of it. But now, apparently, that had never happened.

This time, Zoro resolved to pass the time through meditation. He perched himself on the roof of the Observation Room at the stern of the _Thousand Sunny_, from which he could see as much of the ship as possible. He crossed his legs as he sat down, cringing a little at the pain of his wounded shin, and then he closed his eye. Through hearing alone he could track any activities taking place outside, the casual conversations amongst some of Troy's crew, or the louder game of Craps that some others were playing with Luffy and Usopp. Nami was in another corner of the deck, consulting with yet others about ways to how to count cards in the game of Blackjack. He centered himself, focused on the details, and waited.

…And he waited, and waited. An hour passed, then two, as the sun rode down to mid-afternoon and nothing changed, everyone on the _Sunny_ still waiting for Troy to awaken so that he and his crew could return to the _Lady Luck_. Zoro began to grow restless. Clearly this was one of those "a watched pot never boils" situations, where his scheme to just monitor everything and wait for something to change was doomed to failure.

"Fine," he said aloud, standing up. "I'll just have to go on patrol." He looked to his left, then to his right. _Maybe I am going crazy; I'm talking to myself._ He leapt down onto the deck, beginning a patrol of the ship.

The patrol began belowdecks, wandering through the hold and looking through the ship's supplies. He did not see anything strange down there, but then he rarely ventured down to this level of the ship: it was generally Franky and Usopp's domain. He spared only a passing glance at Franky in his workshop: there was always a lot of weird stuff going on in there, and Zoro wouldn't know if anything was out of place.

He climbed up to the kitchen level, checking through the aquarium room. He watched the fresh-caught fish swimming lazily in the tank, and realized that he wouldn't gain many clues here, either: if it wasn't fermented, he wasn't too particular about what went into his stomach, so he rarely paid attention to what the catch of the day was. It was for that reason that he bypassed the galley and that damn ero-cook: the antipathy that existed between the two men made sure that Zoro did not really know much about the intimate details of the kitchen area, and thus would not easily identify any changes.

He passed out onto the deck briefly, where Luffy had once again made his efforts to learn how to snap his fingers into the center of amusement. Everyone who had been there remained there, just now focused upon Luffy's escapades. Nothing new here.

The library presented the same issue as the kitchen and lower decks. Though Zoro was not illiterate, he only had a handful of books to his name out of the crew's sizable collection: a few sword collectors' guides and a history of Wano Kuni. Still, he could at least check those books out, to make sure they were still where they were supposed to be. Zoro swiftly crossed the threshold into the library, moving over to the shelf where his books were.

"My, this is a rare sight."

Zoro nearly leapt out of his skin. Was this a change, or had he just missed her? He whipped around, finding Robin lounging on one of the broad, cushioned seats below the bookshelves. She had a large tome nestled between her legs.

"I wanted to make sure everything is still where it's supposed to be."

"I haven't seen anybody come and touch your books," Robin replied.

"You wouldn't have. Only I notice the changes." He paused. "What about you? Do you think I'm going crazy too?"

"It's too early to say," Robin said, with a tone that carried just a hint of amusement. "Anything's possible," she added, motioning towards her book.

For reasons unknown even to himself, Zoro decided to humor her. "What are you reading there? The book from Troy's ship?"

"Indeed," Robin said. "Someone on that ship seems to understand the real power of probability: this is a book on chaos theory."

"And that is…?"

"It's the idea that a small event can change the world in ways that nobody can foresee. Imagine: a woodsman goes out to find food for his family in the winter. An icicle happens to fall and kill him, and then his family starves."

"Uh-huh," Zoro said flatly, merely arching an eyebrow at Robin's candid morbidity.

"What could his children have been when they grew up? His son could have been a revolutionary hero. His daughter could have become a magnificent artist. History might miss them altogether, just because of a falling icicle."

Something clicked in Zoro's mind. "So it's like Troy's devil fruit power?"

"His works on a much smaller scale, it seems," Robin replied.

"Maybe he's doing this to us," Zoro continued. "He's faking sleep and messing with us on the ship from the infirmary!"

Now Robin arched an eyebrow in confusion.

"Don't tell me…" Zoro said, sensing what was coming.

"We left him behind hours ago. We defeated them and left."

"So you just stole that book?"

"We are pirates, after all," Robin said. "We should get to enjoy it sometimes."

"But he hit his head. Chopper decided he might have a concussion, so we kept him on board. And his crew too, I guess."

"Chopper-san examined him after he fell, but did not observe anything unusual," Robin corrected. "We took a quick look around the ship, acquiring some goods for our troubles, and left."

"Damnit!" Zoro spat. It had changed when he wasn't even looking. He had to go and tell Chopper about this.

"Yahoo! I got it!"

_Was that Luffy?_

"Yeah, I got it, I got it! Hold 'em back, this is our ticket outta this hellhole!" Now it was a woman's voice. Zoro whirled around, taking in his surroundings, which had changed drastically. Now he was ashore, in what appeared to be an open-air marketplace of some kind. He had two of his swords drawn. Luffy, Brook, Chopper, and Sanji were fighting fiercely against a number of powerful-looking thugs. Nami was chasing after a pirate woman, slim and long-legged with brown hair cut in a bob: the pirate woman held Nami's New World Log Pose in her hand as she ran.

"Zoro!" Nami shouted at him. "Get her, stop her! She has the Log Pose!"

The woman was mere feet away from Zoro and approaching fast. Under normal conditions, she would have been easy prey for Zoro's blades, but the enemy pirate clearly saw Zoro's state of utter confusion written all over his face. She rushed him and passed him by as he stalled, overwhelmed by the sudden, huge change in venue.

"What are you doing!?" Nami shrieked, in a mix of rage and desperation as she too sped past Zoro. He turned around and started to run after Nami, but the brunette pirate had already run out of sight, around a corner into an alleyway. The other pirates scattered too.

"Damnit!" Nami seethed. She turned around and glared at Zoro. "What the hell was that!? How did you screw that up?"

"I…" Zoro began, but clearly emotions were running high. Whatever situation he had just been thrust into, it would be wrong of him to further burden his crewmates with his problems. "I don't know." That wasn't really a lie.

It wasn't enough for Nami, all the same. "They took our Log Pose!" she screamed. "They took it," she added, now sounding a little afraid. "We can't get to the next island without it. We'll be stuck here forever, don't you get it?!"

"I… I'm sorry…" Zoro said. The loss of the log pose definitely was bad, but he utterly lacked the context to really appreciate what was going on. Who was that woman? Why had she wanted the Log Pose so badly? Beyond any of those questions, where the hell was he, and how had he gotten here?

The others gathered around him. Sanji regarded him darkly, though he did not seem truly angry. Brook looked confused and Chopper looked a little scared. Luffy's expression was unreadable.

Zoro looked back at them, and reached a simple decision. "Luffy," he said directly to his captain. "I think I should go back to the ship."

"Yeah," Luffy acknowledged simply, his expression still unreadable. The others glanced at Luffy, but none of them could come up with any objections. So Zoro turned and left.

To his credit, he at least started off walking in the right direction. The sun was still bright in the sky, but was moving distinctly westward. It was still late afternoon, the same time of day as when he had still been on the _Sunny_. To the west, below the sun, a number of masts were visible, including the _Sunny_'s distinct crow's nest; the island's docks were only a few blocks to the west.

What should then have been a five-minute walk a few blocks to the west ended up a 40-minute meandering stroll, first north, then double that distance south, back east a few blocks, before he finally turned westward again. The journey gave him time to ruminate on his current situation, however, and gather facts about the island.

First, he discovered that his leg wound was gone, as if the fight had never happened. As he wandered the streets, he further learned that the island was called Forcas, and apparently Log Poses were hard to come by for some reason, though he had not been able to glean why from the conversations on the street. At least that explained why that other pirate group had been so eager to steal Nami's Pose.

What it did not explain was why any of this was going on. Listening to Robin talk about chaos theory, he thought he had a theory of his own that Troy was behind this, but then another change had occurred that took Troy out of the picture. It was possible that Troy had been trying to mess with him as revenge for his defeat, but how did that explain this last change? How could Troy have sent him here after Troy himself had already left the _Sunny_?

The sun hung a little lower in the sky as Zoro finally managed to return to the _Thousand Sunny_. He felt bad for having failed his friends, for having let the other woman get away, but not as bad as he would have under normal circumstances. Despite the fact that it involved his friends, it didn't feel like his fight: he felt like a foreigner in a strange land. He would have to get over that feeling, and fast. Whatever was happening to him, it might be permanent, and since their Log Pose had been stolen, the others would need his help.

But what if it wasn't permanent? What if everything was going to change on him again? Why should he bother getting adjusted to this situation when everything could flip around at any second? These doubts roiled in Zoro's mind as he wandered the deck of the _Sunny_, looking for any of the others. Usopp, Robin, and Franky had been missing from the group that was out hunting for the Log Pose, and likely one or more of them had been left behind to guard the ship. He could not find anyone, so he made a beeline for the mainmast and scurried up to the crow's nest gym.

Zoro was intently pumping through a long set of flat flies when the trapdoor into the gym swung open, followed by a head of long, silky-black hair. Zoro set the weights down and sat up on the bench. "Yo," he greeted simply.

Nico Robin finished stepping up through the trapdoor. "Why did you come back by yourself?" she asked.

Zoro was silent for a while, trying to think it through. "It's complicated."

"I've got time," Robin said. She stepped over to the bench and sat down… quite close to him. "What happened?"

Zoro turned and cast a bewildered glance at her. She smiled back at him. "I screwed up," he said. It was best to start the story off simply, he thought. "I screwed up, and the Log Pose got stolen."

Robin replied by leaning on his shoulder and placing her hand in his.

"What the hell!" Zoro yelped, shaking his hand free from hers and standing up. "What are you trying to pull?"

Now Robin laughed softly. "It's a little late to be uncomfortable with holding hands." She held up her left hand. "I hope you would have gotten over that before you asked me to marry you."

There was an engagement ring on her finger.

End Act Two


	3. Act Three

Act Three

"We're engaged?" Zoro asked, flabbergasted. The latest change had been weirder than it seemed.

Robin's expression grew doubtful as she gazed at Zoro. "You really don't remember, do you?"

Zoro shook his head emphatically.

Now Robin's expression saddened, though only slightly. Apparently she was still emotionally guarded, even with her fiancée. "What do you remember?" she asked.

"None of this!" Zoro spat, jabbing an arm towards Forcas island, visible out the window. "This morning we weren't near any islands. We fought pirates led by a guy named Troy; he said he was allied with Big Mom and he attacked us with this bad-luck devil fruit power. We beat him, and ever since then everything's been changing on me at random."

Again Robin's expression changed, ever so subtly. Was it relief? "Why would someone allied with Big Mom attack us?" she asked. "We're allies too."

"I don't remember that either," he said. "I remember Luffy pissin' her off at Fishman Island over a candy delivery."

"Yes, when he defied her, she took a liking to him. Big Mom said "I like brave, stupid guys," so she decided to have her people help us out when we needed it."

"Then how'd we end up at this island?"

"Big Mom's egg-shaped subordinate recommended that we go to Rig Maratha as our first stop in the New World, and we've been following the Log Pose from there."

"So we didn't go to Punk Hazard or Dressrosa?"

Robin shook her head.

"And…" Zoro added, his face reddening, "when did we…?"

Now Robin smiled, amused by his discomfort. "It's a long story, centered around our adventures on Rig Maratha. We were separated from the others for quite some time. In the time we spent together, we got to know each other better, and we discovered feelings that had been growing for some time."

An awkward silence prevailed as Robin continued to smile knowingly while Zoro shifted uncomfortably on his feet. "How about you?" she asked. "What do you remember?"

"Little changes," Zoro said, still struggling to process what was going on. "First you weren't at lunch, then you were. Lunch changed from fish to meat. We locked up Troy's pirates, then they were on the _Sunny_, then we just left them behind completely. My wound changed places, now it's gone. And now…" He looked back at her, and she smiled anew.

"Now you're here," Robin finished. "You said this "Troy" had a power that bred misfortune and made things change?"

"Yeah."

"Is it possible that he's doing this to you?"

"That's what I thought," Zoro said. "But one of the changes made him disappear, and that was before I ended up here. Besides, what would he get from changing things this much, and why am I the only one who remembers how things used to be? Beating him was a team effort, I was just closest to him when he hit his head and knocked himself out. Why single me out?"

"It's hard to know without more context," Robin acknowledged. She paused for a moment, losing herself in thought. "So how do we put things back to normal?" she asked after a while.

"I don't know," Zoro replied. "I don't even know what's really going on."

"I won't accept that," Robin said. "I accept that you're Roronoa Zoro, but you're not my fiancé." She smiled, but there was a hint of danger behind it. "I want him back."

"He'd… uh… probably be happy to be back…" Zoro muttered.

Robin laughed softly again while Zoro's face reddened.

"Between you, Chopper, Franky, Usopp and Nami, you've got enough brains to sort this out." Zoro continued, hastily swerving the subject. "But," he added, stepping over to where his swords lay, "we need to help them out first."

"I agree," Robin said, as he equipped his swords. "Let's go."

~0~

The two pirates strode through the streets side by side as the sun set on Forcas town, bathing the port and marketplace in an orange light.

"So what's the big deal with this island and Poses?" Zoro asked. "Why'd somebody want to steal one of them so bad?"

"There's a problem with the island's magnetic field," Robin replied. "Pirates arriving have to leave in precisely 24 hours. Leave a minute too soon and you must start over. Leave a minute too late and the magnetism warps the Pose, making it permanently useless." She noticed Zoro's expression and added, "there's no immediate danger of that. We arrived just after lunch today. But many pirates don't know the rules and end up stranded. The Marines come by occasionally to sweep them up, so the currently stranded are desperate to leave before the next patrol."

"So we have to…" Zoro began, before Robin shot out an arm and stopped him in his tracks.

"Could you describe the pirate who stole the Log Pose?" she asked, interrupting him. She then closed her eyes and crossed her arms.

Zoro looked at her curiously, but responded. "A young woman, very short brown hair, thin, kinda leggy. What are you…?"

Robin ignored him, and instead intoned, "Mil Fleur: Omniscience!"

Zoro could hear the telltale sound of hana-hana parts sprouting, but faint and far off. Robin shuddered suddenly.

"Are you okay?" Zoro asked, surprising himself with the suddenness of his concern.

"Yes," Robin said, opening her eyes again. "That trick is just a little overwhelming. I know where she is," she added.

"Already!?" Zoro asked.

"Indeed, but the others are already there. We should hurry."

"Right!" Zoro said sharply, "which way?"

Robin turned and pointed up a side street. "This way."

Zoro pointedly did not turn and started running forwards. "Zoro!" Robin called.

"What? We gotta move!"

"Take my hand," she said, motioning towards him.

A series of emotions flashed across Zoro's features in sequence: surprise, irritation, and grudging acceptance. With a somewhat petulant look on his face, he strode back over to Robin and took her hand in his before she turned back in the right direction and ran, leading him along. The sight of a woman leading a grown man along like a child drew more than a few curious stares from amongst the crowd, much to Zoro's chagrin.

It was always like this with Robin. She never volunteered more information than necessary; she simply acted in pursuit of her goals. Working with her, Zoro often felt like he was being led around by the nose, or in this case, literally led by hand. He liked her as much as he liked the other Straw Hats, of course, but he had to wonder how another Zoro could actually have fallen in love with her.

Zoro did not have long to reflect upon this before Robin suddenly slowed. They had arrived, hearing the action before they could see it: the shouting match involved in a tense standoff. Robin crouched towards the ground and led Zoro around a corner, through a short, narrow alleyway towards a pallet of crates, where the two took cover just out of sight of a dock.

The two peered around the crates and observed the scene arrayed before them as Robin finally filled Zoro in on what she had observed, beyond what he could see with his own eye. "The pirate who stole the pose is a Captain named Tasha. Their Pose broke due to the island's magnetic field."

Beyond the narrow alleyway and out on the docks, about fifty yards away, a pirate ship lay at anchor. The other seven Straw Hat pirates were already there, standing at the base of a gang-plank that led up to Tasha's ship. Several unconscious pirates were scattered around the quay, but most of Tasha's crew was gathered close about her. Tasha herself had Nami's Log Pose positioned on a barrel, while she held a large hammer positioned above it, ready to come crashing down.

"Go ahead!" Tasha shouted towards the Straw Hats. "If I see any of you take a step forward, I'll crush the Log Pose and we all lose! Keep your hands off that slingshot, sniper!" she added.

"She's already lost," Zoro observed.

"Right," Robin agreed. Both knew why without having to say it: Tasha could destroy the Log Pose and be defeated by the Straw Hats, or be defeated and lose the Log Pose. The little Zoro had gathered from their earlier engagement indicated that her crew was at least decent at hit-and-run tactics, but they did not seem like they would be any challenge for the Straw Hats in a straight fight.

Of course, Tasha destroying the Log Pose would still be a very bad thing. "You've got her, right?" Zoro asked.

"As long as you can handle the rest," Robin replied.

Zoro grunted an affirmative as he placed Wado Ichimonji in his mouth. Robin lowered her profile behind the crates so that she could only just see over the edge, and then crossed her arms. Zoro too crouched lower to the ground. Their eyes met, just for a moment, before Robin whispered "Treinta Fluer."

The instant Robin's tongue withdrew into her mouth to form the "r" sound, Zoro was off in a flash, and a lot of things happened very quickly. At inhuman speed, the swordsman blasted onto the deck of Tasha's ship, where the enemy captain suddenly found her body covered in smooth-skinned arms, a few of which were dedicated in making sure that Tasha's hammer was safely separated from the Log Pose.

Before Tasha had time to do more than give voice to her surprise, Zoro had taken out two of her crew, leaving them crumpled on the deck. "Get the Po-augh!" Tasha screeched in pain as her body was contorted into a truly grotesque position, issuing her order to destroy the hostage. The other pirates moved, focused not on the green-haired demon in their midst but on the fragile glass compass on the barrel near their fallen captain.

In the moments since their counterattack had begun, the other Straw Hats had joined the fray. Usopp was the first to get involved, with two well-placed Pop Greens strangling a pair of pirates who were headed towards the Pose and just out of Zoro's reach. Zoro himself knocked over another two pirates, while the rest of Tasha's crew swarmed. The other Straw Hats surged up the gangplank, with Franky leading the charge and Nami following closely in his wake. As Franky engaged the enemy pirates, Nami managed to seize her Log Pose.

It was over shortly after that, and the Straw Hats left Tasha's pirate crew behind. "Ugh, what is with you today?" Nami seethed at Zoro. "First you totally blow it when that crazy chick stole the Log Pose, now you swoop in and save the day with Robin? Are you trying to play the hero or something?"

"It's a long story," Robin advised gently. "We'll explain it when we get back to the ship."

The walk back to the ship gave Zoro time to think, at least when Chopper, Usopp and Luffy weren't fawning over how badass Zoro and Robin's surprise attack had been. In between their outbursts and (admittedly) hilarious efforts at mimicking their crewmates, Zoro replayed the moments leading up to the surprise attack in his head. Robin never volunteered more information than necessary: she said what needed to be said, and then acted in pursuit of her goals. She did it because she knew that he could keep up with her; just as he would do for her. It was an odd thing, really: something that he found annoying about her was a trait they shared in common, and a sign of mutual respect.

That thought kept him occupied until they returned to the _Thousand Sunny_. "Okay, so what's the big deal?" Nami asked, resuming her inquisition. The crew was lounging around in the garden space, around Nami's mikan trees and Robin's flowerbeds.

So it was that Zoro found himself explaining the past few hours yet again. The crew at large found his story fascinating, with Chopper intrigued about how Troy's powers could actually work and Luffy amused at the idea that he and Big Mom could ever have been enemies. Still, they hung on his every word.

"And that's it," Zoro concluded. "I was confused when Tasha stole the Log Pose because I had just been in the library on the _Sunny_, nowhere near any island."

"Are you sure you aren't just dreaming?" Usopp mused. "Maybe when you got hit in the head, you went into a coma and this is all just a coma fantasy."

Luffy reached behind him into a flowerbed and ripped a flower out. "No," he said, throwing the flower away in disappointment. "This isn't a dream; meat isn't growing out of the ground."

"It would be a dream to be engaged to Robin-chwan!" Sanji swooned. Nami glared at him, but Robin merely chuckled. Clearly her engagement had not changed how she reacted to Sanji's advances, nor had it dissuaded Sanji from making those advances in the first place.

"It has to be that Troy guy," Franky said. "What's happening to you sounds too much like his devil fruit power to be a coincidence. Maybe we could call Big Mom's people and try to get in touch with him? I've still got their den-den mushi."

"But he disappeared," Brook said. "Troy left the ship, and we've never heard of him. How could he still be around?"

Chopper looked pensive. "A coma fantasy…" he murmured. "Zoro, what exactly was Troy doing before he got knocked out?"

"I was slashing at his wrist, and he made me miss. I was about to slash again, and I guess he was going to snap his fingers again, but then he hit his head on the mast."

"So he was focused on you before he got knocked out?"

"Yeah."

Franky suddenly perked up. "That's it!" he said, he made a fist and ran it into his palm with a _clang_.

Suddenly Zoro was very cold and very uncomfortable. Things had changed again, and a quick glance showed him that he was awkwardly perched on the top of a mast, and it was snowing.

"Not again!" Zoro barked, but his exclamation caused him to overbalance and fall onto the deck below.

He hit the deck. Hard. The deck wasn't covered by a lawn, and he lay there in a daze until someone came running.

"Zoro!" It was Robin. "Are you okay?"

"Not really," he admitted.

"What's wrong?"

"I… uh… guess I lost my balance," he said, opening his right eye. His right eye. _Damnit_. He sat up. "It's kind of a long story. Where are we?"

Robin arched an eyebrow. "We're on the ship."

"Yeah," he said, looking around. None of this was familiar. "What ship?"

Now Robin looked more concerned. "The _Going Merry II_."

"And are we still…?" he looked at her hand, which still had an engagement ring on it.

"Zoro, what's wrong?" Robin asked again.

"Like I said, it's a long story. I just need to see Franky, he's got something that can help me."

Robin's bewildered expression did not change. "Franky? The cyborg from Water 7?"

"Damnit," Zoro cursed again. "Not again."

End Act Three.


	4. Act Four

Act Four

"What happened?" Zoro heard an unfamiliar voice call. "Is everything all right?"

"What hit the deck?" the next voice was clearly Usopp. Zoro sat up as he and Robin turned towards the source of the sound, the open doorway to the Going Merry II's cabin.

The first voice showed himself as a burly, blond-haired man with a neatly-trimmed beard being the only thing neat about him. He wore a vest that had once been a jean jacket with roughly cut-off sleeves in spite of the snow. His hair was long, a stubby cigar jutted from his lips, and his open vest showed a well-toned chest. Zoro squinted at the man, wondering if this new change might have yielded a new Sanji, but it wasn't the cook. Memories flashed back through Zoro's mind, and he found a name to match the face.

"Paulie?" he asked, "is that you?"

The shipwright gave Zoro a puzzled look. "Yeah it's me, who were you expect- hey!" he suddenly yelled, pointing an accusing finger at Robin. "Put some clothes on! What the hell do you think you're wearing?"

Robin was wearing a fairly conservative skirt, but she complemented it with a button-down blouse that did have a few too many buttons undone to be considered entirely decent (again, in spite of the apparent snow, nobody seemed to be dressed for it) though this was normal for Robin. It seemed that Paulie's idiosyncrasies had not changed.

"Zoro fell," Robin said plainly, ignoring Paulie's exhortation. "Something seems to be wrong with him."

"Maybe my there's-no-way-we're-going-to-Argus disease is spreading!" Usopp added, emerging behind Paulie and approaching Zoro and Robin where they sat. "Seriously, we should turn back."

"It's not one of your made up diseases," Zoro said bluntly. "But something really weird is going on. Tell me," he said, looking at each of them in turn. "Are we still allied with Big Mom?"

"Yeah…" Usopp said slowly, not knowing where Zoro was going with this.

"Then," he said, looking at Paulie directly this time. "Do you have a den den mushi for getting in touch with her people?"

"Yup," the shipwright said. "Down in my workshop. Why?"

"One more question," Zoro said, switching gears and looking at Robin. He wanted to clarify something. "You and I are still engaged, right?"

"Are we?" Robin said, resting her chin on the hand that bore what was apparently their engagement ring.

"Close enough," Zoro said. "All I want to say is it's been a really weird day for me. When I woke up, our ship was the _Thousand Sunny_, we were traveling to Zou, our shipwright was the cyborg Franky, and you and me," he said, looking at Robin again. "That never happened. Then I was on this island called Forcas, engaged to Robin and still with Franky as our shipwright. So… yeah," he ended lamely. "I need to make a call."

His three crewmates regarded him with varying looks of surprise, from Robin's mild curiosity to Usopp's utter disbelief. "Chopper!" Usopp screamed. "Quarantine code Z!"

"What?!" Chopper's voice came from belowdecks. "No, Zoro! Hold on!" Heavy-point Chopper soon surged out of the cabin door, first-aid kit in hand. "Stay still!" he said as he charged towards the swordsman. "I'll have you diagnosed in no time!"

"I don't need diagnosed!" Zoro protested as Chopper accosted him with a stethoscope.

"Zoro is sick?" Now it was Brook who emerged on deck. Brook also seemed to have changed somewhat, which was made apparent through the multicolored rastacap he wore jauntily on his afro. "How unfortunate!"

"You better not get Robin-chwan sick too, marimo," Sanji followed Brook in emerging. He seemed fairly unchanged.

"Sanji, I'm still hungry…" Luffy moaned, following at Sanji's heels.

"What the hell!" Nami joined in with a shriek, emerging from the upper cabin. "Can't I get one hour of peace to draw my new map!?"

"Put some clothes on!" Paulie barked.

"Zoro's got a new disease!" Usopp added. "He's gone crazy! It's an emergency!" The scene quickly devolved into general chaos as several arguments broke out at once. Zoro joined in the shouting as he endeavored to dislodge Chopper.

"Veinte Fleur!" Robin came to the rescue, a series of hana-hana hands reaching out and gagging all of the squabbling crewmates, as well as forcibly prying Chopper off of Zoro.

"Please," she said, a quiet danger behind her polite veneer, "let him speak. This is Zoro's problem."

Looking sheepish, the others backed down and the hana-hana hands dissolved. "Thank you," Robin said kindly.

"Thanks," Zoro said to Robin directly. Like him, she often stood as a bystander of the crew's shenanigans, but had a presence that could corral them if necessary.

"So…" Usopp began cautiously, not sure if Robin would let him speak. "You said things have been changing for you since you got up this morning?"

"Yeah," Zoro said grudgingly. He was getting sick of explaining this over and over again. "We fought this guy, Jimmy Troy, who was allied to Big Mom, and he could change things. I'd slash at him, and I would always miss. Stuff like that."

"Big Mom and us are enemies?" Luffy said. "Wild."

"Then after we beat him, little things started changing. Then bigger stuff. Soon I was at a different island, and me and Robin were engaged."

"You mean you weren't before?" Nami asked. "That just seems kind of sad." Nami, or this Nami anyway, seemed to be a big fan of their relationship.

"Nope," Zoro replied. "When I ended up with Robin, we were on this island called Forcas. The crew all sat down to figure out what was happening to me. Chopper said something about how Troy had been focused on me when he got knocked out, then Franky looked like he had an idea, clapped his fists together, and now I'm here."

"Excuse me, but who is Franky?" Brook asked.

"It was before we met you," Sanji said. "He's a shipwright at Water 7, and gave us the wood to make the new _Going Merry_. How did he join us, anyway?" he asked Zoro. "He helped us fight CP9, but he decided he wanted to partner with Iceberg to run the Galley La company."

"Yup," Paulie added, picking up where Sanji left off. "So I spearheaded the design of the _Going Merry II_ and decided to go with you guys, so I could see where my ship would go. What's this _Thousand Sunny_ like?"

"It's really not important," Zoro said, not wanting to spend the next hour talking shop with a shipwright that he didn't even really know all that well. "I just want to make a call, and get this all sorted out."

"Indeed you should," Robin put in, a dangerous half-smile playing on her lips that Zoro had seen only a few hours before, in another world. "You may be Roronoa Zoro, but…"

"Yeah yeah," he cut her off. "I may be Roronoa Zoro, but I'm not your fiancée, and you want him back." Now it was his turn to smile at Robin's nonplussed expression. "You told me that already. Take me to that den-den mushi," he said to Paulie.

"I see," Nami said. "You think that Troy person has something to do with this still?"

"That's what they… er… that's what you guys said," this was all getting a bit too confusing for Zoro.

"But who knows if he's even allied to Big Mom?" Chopper asked. "He is where you came from, but we weren't."

Zoro grimaced. He hadn't thought of that, but if it was true, it was out of his power. "Down in your workshop, right?" he asked.

"No, bring it up here!" Luffy said. "I always love listening to that egg guy talk-don!"

"No, no," Usopp corrected "it's "bon."

"Bon!" Luffy laughed. "Bring it up, Paulie!"

So Paulie retreated belowdecks, returning with the den-den mushi that Tamago had given to Luffy back at Fishman Island. The crew was abuzz in conversation, but Zoro himself got a brief moment of peace, giving him more time to ponder the situation. A number of thoughts floated through his mind in those brief moments. First he recalled what Chopper, the Chopper from Forcas Island, had been saying right before the last change: Chopper had gotten a solid idea off of Usopp's crazy idea that this was all a dream. The other thought, nagging at the back of his mind, was that he was still engaged to Robin in this new scenario, despite how different other things were. Being engaged to her had seemed like a wild, impossible chance, and yet it persisted even in this other continuity.

His thoughts were interrupted as Paulie emerged, a den-den mushi in hand. "Here ya go," he said, chucking the snail Zoro's way. Zoro caught it neatly, picked up the receiver and made the call.

_Purupurupuru purupurupuru purupurupuru, click._

"Hello, is this Straw-Hat, soir?" Tamago's voice came from the other side.

"Soir!" Luffy yelled, then fell to the deck laughing.

"It must be, bon," the voice out of the den den mushi now sounded icy. Luffy kept laughing.

"This is actually Pirate Hunter Zoro," he said. He did not often introduce himself that way, but he needed to make himself known.

"And how may we be of help to you, Monsieur Zoro?"

"I want to talk to another ally of yours. Do you have an ally named Jimmy Troy?"

The snail paused for a moment, then replied. "Oui, Monsieur Troy has sworn allegiance to Big Mom, bon."

"Bon!"

"Shut up, Luffy!"

"Shall I connect you to him, soir?"

"Yeah, please," Zoro said.

The den den mushi rang again for a while, then a new voice came through.

"Ah, Tamago-san!" Zoro immediately identified the voice as Troy's. "We've got the money, we totally do, you just have to give us…"

"This isn't Tamago," Zoro said, interrupting him. "But we're allied with her too." It still felt weird to say that.

"And? What do you want?"

Zoro scowled, but swallowed his anger. He just needed information. He acted on the idea that had been floating around in his head. "Has your devil fruit power ever gone haywire?" He asked. "Maybe when you were asleep or something?"

"How would I know if something bad happened when I was asleep?" Troy growled. "Seriously, you're just wasting my… Hey!" He suddenly protested, and there were sounds of a minor scuffle that the snail conveyed masterfully.

"Yeah, this is Wesley," a new voice spoke. "I'm ship's doctor, and I think I know what you're talking about."

"Really?" Zoro asked. The rest of the crew suddenly fell silent from their squabbles, listening intently.

"Some of the crew has strange dreams sometimes," Wesley said. "First things seem normal, then things switch around and get weirder and weirder. But aside from the changes, it doesn't feel like a dream, even though it only happens at night."

"How do things switch around?" Zoro asked.

"Randomly. Some of the guys said they ended up on different ships, with different crews, or we were still on this ship but in a completely different part of the New World. Somebody in the dream would snap their fingers, or something like that, and everything would just turn out different."

Zoro's eye widened, and suddenly it all made sense. Franky clapping his fist into his palm, Chopper clapping his hooves together, and way back at the beginning of all of this, Usopp trying to teach Luffy how to snap his fingers.

"And you think it has to do with Troy's powers?" Zoro asked.

"It's too similar just to be a coincidence," Wesley replied. "The captain's powers don't need him to actually snap his fingers, just to focus on somebody and visualize a change in their luck. The snapping just helps him through that. So he changes our dreams or something when he's dreaming and thinking about one of us."

"And when does it end?" Zoro asked finally.

"When he wakes up." There was a pause. "Why do you need to know about all of this any…" He was cut off as Zoro hung up on him. The swordsman had felt a sense of triumph in uncovering the source of what was happening to him, but that was all draining away.

"So there's nothing you can do about it…" Nami said after a pause. Zoro squinted suddenly as the fiery light of the setting sun glanced off the sea, beyond the snow-laden clouds.

"It depends on how badly he was knocked out," Chopper added.

"You said he didn't have a concussion," Zoro replied. "When I was in the infirmary, it did actually look like he was dreaming or something." Zoro sat down on the deck, propping himself against the base of the mast. "Whatever," he said, sounding calmer than he felt. "Nothing to do now but wait for him to wake up."

Robin turned towards him just as he closed his eye. "When did he get knocked out, Zoro?" she asked.

"A little before lunchtime."

"Zoro? Zoro?" Robin repeated.

"What?" He growled, "I answered your question!" He opened his eye again to find her standing over him, leaning down with an expression that was at once vexed and relieved. There was no ring on her finger.

"Everyone!" she shouted clearly. "I found him!" Zoro glanced around, quickly deducing that he was now leaning on the mainmast of the _Lady Luck_. He glanced up, and sure enough, there were slash marks in the mast. It was sunset, too, the same time of day it had just been.

"Zoro!" Chopper's overjoyed voice was heard from the _Thousand Sunny_ nearby. "You're okay!" Chopper morphed into running point and leapt… straight over the rail and into the water. Sanji was mounting a rescue as Zoro stood up.

"So I was gone for, what, 8 hours?" he asked.

"Yes," Robin replied. "We all saw you disappear when Troy was defeated. We've been worried."

"Didn't the ship's doctor tell you?" Zoro asked. "This sort of thing happens when he gets knocked out."

Robin again looked vexed. "Their crew has no doctor," she said. "We didn't know anything. I suggested you had been sent to some horrible purgatory."

Zoro laughed, low and rough. "It wasn't so bad."

By now Sanji had fished Chopper out of the sea, and Franky had moved the gangplank to be a passage between both ships, so that Chopper made it across safely. "Are you okay?" he finally said, beginning basic diagnosis. "I saw you get hit on the head before you vanished."

"Yeah," Zoro replied. He reached up and touched his scalp, wincing as he did so. Apparently 8 hours had not reduced the tenderness.

"What happened?" Franky asked. "Where did you go?"

Zoro was about to open his mouth, then his gaze flickered to Robin and back again. "Somewhere totally different," he said, choosing in an instant to skip over a large part of the true story. "You weren't there," he said to Franky. "That shipwright Paulie came with us instead. Our ship was a remake of the _Going Merry_, and we were allied to Big Mom."

"What!?" Luffy exclaimed. "That's impossible!"

Zoro shrugged. "That guy's powers made it possible. Where is he, anyway?"

"He's still asleep in the infirmary," Chopper said.

"He isn't now," Zoro said.

The crew asked a few more questions of Zoro's experiences, then turned to the business of releasing Troy's crew from their imprisonment belowdecks on the _Lady Luck_, as well as returning their Captain to them. The crew seemed both penitent and grateful that their Captain was okay, and the _Lady Luck_ was on her way.

The various Straw Hats then held a late dinner out under the moonlight, after which they dispersed, some going to bed while others went about their nightly business.

Zoro climbed up the mast, having thoughts of getting some training done, but he paused halfway up.

"_In the time we spent together, we got to know each other better, and we discovered feelings that had been growing for some time."_

_Feelings that had been growing for some time._

Zoro climbed back down the mast.

~0~

"Oh, Zoro, what brings you here so late at night?" Robin looked up from her book. It was a rare enough sight to see Zoro in the Thousand Sunny's library at all, let alone after hours, when he either trained or slept. She herself did little sleeping even now, spending most of her nights in the library, reading by lantern-light.

"I just… wanted to talk, that's all." Zoro said with only a hint of hesitation. If Robin thought that comment strange, she did not make any sign of it. "Is that the book on chaos theory you got from Troy's ship?"

"How did you know about that?"

_Damn._ He had skipped over that part of the story too. "I dunno," he said dismissively. "How do you like it?" he said instead.

"It's really quite fascinating," Robin said sincerely. "Somebody on that ship really knew how important Troy's devil fruit power could be. With just a twist of fate, anything at all is possible."

"Ain't that the truth," Zoro said aloud.

Robin smiled knowingly, in only the way she could, and they continued their conversation.

End Act Four

**Author's Epilogue Note:** _Not one of you guessed it, did you? The whole plot is a fairly straight-laced ripoff of Star Trek: The Next Generation, specifically the final-season episode "Parallels", in which something very similar happens to Lieutenant Worf (though the explanation is standard Trek physics-babel instead of a contrived Devil Fruit). I adapted it because the episode established the Worf-Troi ship, which has an appeal very similar to Zoro/Robin._

_To that end, the story was peppered with small hints in terms of naming, from Jimmy Troy (Troi), or Forcas, named for Forcas III, a planet from the episode, or Argus, mentioned in passing in both the episode and the story. Tasha was more overt, as the character was named for and meant to resemble Tasha Yar, as well, in this Act, of Wesley the doctor (Wesley Crusher, son of Dr. Crusher). Rig Maratha was the only name of my own invention, and has no meaning._

_Hope you enjoyed my little ripoff!_


End file.
